Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

I just installed the patch to version 22.12.1.14. I noticed that it added several new tasks. That is fine. However, it also wiped out all the existing scheduled tasks in "Task Scheduler Library." Fortunately, I remembered what they were and was able to recreate them. This needs to be fixed!

Replies

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

Do you mean it actually wiped all the scheduled tasks for Microsoft Windows etc. too?

If this is true, then this really is a first-class screw-up

Is it just me, or is Norton not doing any testing what so ever on their side? Seems like these guys just develop something and throw it out into the wild, using the motto "oh well, the customer will test it for us".

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

Fortunately, it only deleted the tasks at the top level, not those in the nested folders for Windows and Office, etc. I only had to restore a handful of tasks for various applications. I intend to backup all the top-level tasks on my other computers before the Norton patch wipes them out as well.

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

Just updated to the latest version of norton and thank god I saw this thread on the forums during the day.

I exported all my scheduled tasks in the root of the task scheduler library, guess what: update to new version and they're all gone...

Am in the process of re-importing them now.

Nice going Norton! Do you guys do ANY kind of testing what so ever before releasing code to customers?

One of the scheduled tasks being removed for me was "GoogleUpdateTaskMachineCore", with following description:

Keeps your Google software up to date. If this task is disabled or stopped, your Google software will not be kept up to date, meaning security vulnerabilities that may arise cannot be fixed and features may not work. This task uninstalls itself when there is no Google software using it.

Another one was "Adobe Acrobat Update Task":

This task keeps your Adobe Reader and Acrobat applications up to date with the latest enhancements and security fixes

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

I would restore, as you do not know what more is removed there.
It now looks that only the tasks in the root are removed (about 20 on my system). It does not seem, on first view, that more is removed. The underlying folders seem unchanged, but i am not sure.
I can oversee the root, but do not know what more is removed.

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

This seems biggest blunder by Norton to date - see no response from Norton themselves - patch need urgent pulling -PLEASE Norton. Norton need to provide a user choice box whether to install or not. Lately, it appears installing first release of update causes numerous issues, ie. 22.11 & 22.12. I have learnt lately not to install updates until a few weeks have elapsed - fed up with acting as Norton's test team which they don't appear to have now.

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

Mohan_G was the name on the email I received from new product notifications (subscribed) - where is his response?. Disappeared for a couple of days after his original 22.12 release notification in early January then another issue about being pulled although this did not come through as an email notification - had to find this on a search - complete lack of communication from Norton again in that case (then there was 2 versions, the link I had was one comment behind which I did not find till too late). I was brought up, if you have made a mistake, put your hand up. I assume people that have lost their tasks would be entitled to claim from Norton.

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

What am I missing here? Knowledgeable people who know where this forum is and how to use it are reporting potentially computer crippling action by this update and all @Sunil_GA can say is "they are looking into it". Why aren't they pulling it immediately and then look into it????? I'm sure for every one person reporting the problem here, it's happening to many more who have no idea what's happening to their PC's. Why is Norton taking this road of "non action"? How many potentially destroyed computers do they consider an acceptable loss before they proactively pull this update??

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

AnNe_Z : No, it's bad as it is directly after the update, all Scheduled Tasks in the root are removed by this update, meaning :
Where computer manufacturers place startup tasks there and Google, Adobe and the like place update tasks there, they are all gone. This together with your own tasks and a few Windows tasks. Gone, gone, gone and it's impossible to recover from that.

The update does not seem to impact the undelying folders, but it's very hard to get overview of that massive amount of tasks and if there are missing some.

PhxFlyer : i am now already asking for one full day, via PM and the forum, to pull this update, as the damage is getting worse and more and more systems crippled. But Sunil and his mates still have no sense of urgency, as it is URGENT!!!

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

Mohan_G was the name on the email I received from new product notifications (subscribed) - where is his response?. Disappeared for a couple of days after his original 22.12 release notification in early January then another issue about being pulled although this did not come through as an email notification - had to find this on a search - complete lack of communication from Norton again in that case (then there was 2 versions, the link I had was one comment behind which I did not find till too late)

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

I assume lack of response from Norton is due to everybody recovering from Tony_ Weiss's leaving party. Surely anyone else would pull the update if only a hint of an issue, let alone a major one as this appears to be. What about those users that have updated, do not use the forums and are unaware that they may have potentially ruined their computer. Norton Security is supposed to stop 'bad' programmes etc. coming through but does not seem to stop their own.

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

There is still someone at home. Hope they answer Vitalik's last posting. I assume there should be automatic restore points created under Control Pane/Recovery, no doubt a lot of people will be in this position.

On older Windows versions think it was 'System Restore' in control panel, my old XP created these every few days, 8.1 once a week.

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

So finally : I wrote an email to @Mohang instead of @Sunil_GA and then the update was finally pulled.

@mgirons : There are few things to consider with System restore on Windows 10 :

Basically System Restore is still available as before on Windows 10 under Control Panel/System/Advanced/System Restore

But : At installation time of Windows 10 the default state of System Restore is 'Off', even on the system volume, so no restore points are made. This is different from Windows 7 and 8, on which the default is 'On'.

Only if you have set System Restore explicitely to 'On', you can go back to a previous state of Windows 10. You can also go back if you make regular external backups.

That's also why this update is as destructing as it is!!

So if you do not have restore point or a regular backup, you are lost, unless Norton has a solution for you.

If you know which Started Tasks were in there, you can reinstall the programs and get the automatically generated tasks back, f.i. a few : Google Chrome, Adobe Reader and Flash Player, Garmin Express, Asus ATK Package and Smart Gesture......etc. etc. These are just a few suggestions from my systems and may not be valid for others.

If you go back via System Restore then first switch off Tamper Protection in Settings/Adminstration Settings of Norton, otherwise you will have a crippled Norton after restore.

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

Just choose 15 minutes or 1 hour, depending on how fast your system is. With a SSD 15 minutes should suffise.
After restore Tamper Protection will be on again, as you are back to an eatlier state of Norton.

Run LiveUpdate after System Restore to cope with the latest updates after your restore point.

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

The Norton 22.12.1.14 product update has been pulled back from the LiveUpdate server.

For some reason when this update downloaded on my machine, I luckily did not immediately install it but clicked Apply Later which never happened because I haven't switched off my machine since then intentionally, in view of what other users were experiencing.

Now that it has been pulled back from the LiveUpdate server I could reinstall NS but I won't since the local Norton Customer Support is not availbale over weekends, and unfortunately when reinstalling I often have to contact them bacause of problems such as, for example, the impossibility to connect to the server for the final confirmation, and Customer Support has always been able to help me. Therefore I will have to keep my machine turned on until then, of which I am not enthusiastic at all.

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

Bit surprised Microsoft do not turn on System Restore on 10, how many users would know this, what happens if something (like this issue) happens to then, would this involve complete set-up from scratch, just assumed that this feature would be critical to Windows. At least Norton have taken note of this issue. Think Vitalik93 is on Windows 7 from other threads.

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

Bit surprised Microsoft do not turn on System Restore on 10, how many users would know this, what happens if something (like this issue) happens to then, would this involve complete set-up from scratch, just assumed that this feature would be critical to Windows. At least Norton have taken note of this issue. Think Vitalik93 is on Windows 7 from other threads.

I have one restore point, but it was created 3 weeks ago. I don't want to revert to 3 weeks (if I had a point created 2-3 days ago I would do that). Will wait for another solution.

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

Vitalik93, OK, Norton has wiped out Windows tasks, can't see how these can be restored by Norton as they would not know what was there. Only a restore would put them back which would require any other Windows updates, programme updates etc. reinstalling. Possible reinstall of previous Norton version. Perhaps any-one else can provide suggestions.

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

Vitalik93, OK, Norton has wiped out Windows tasks, can't see how these can be restored by Norton as they would not know what was there. Only a restore would put them back which would require any other Windows updates, programme updates etc. reinstalling. Possible reinstall of previous Norton version. Perhaps any-one else can provide suggestions.

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

Well it affected my Win 10 (64 bit) machine with Windows version 10.0.16299.248. All my scheduled tasks (which were at the root level) have gone. I can easily replace my scheduled tasks but I'm sure I remember seeing others that were presumably setup by various apps...these have now gone. I'm not impressed!

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

My advice to everyone who as a restorepoint and does not have an external backup : I would use it anyway!!
Remember that user-files are not changed back at restoretime.
Before you are going to restore you can check In Norton what's installed since last restorepoint.

Goto Norton main screen/Performance tab/Graphs. There the programs downloaded and installed are listed under the different icons. Check the date of the last restorepoint make a list of installed items since.
Switch off Tamper protection in Norton and do a system restore from the valid restorepoint.

Your tasks should be back now and you can go about installing the programs listed before. Furthermore run Liveupdate in Norton untill no more updates are available.

And : Switch on System Restore and create a first restore point after that OR create decent regular external backups.!!!

As said : If no restorepoint or backup, then it's very difficult to get the tasks back

Re: Norton 22.12.1 patch Wipes Out Scheduled Tasks

Concur with hvgsel comments about restoring. Once forgot to turn off Tamper Protection before restoring, would use another word other than his 'crippled'. 'Undo Restore' brought back to working again, then able to resolve my issue. The sooner Restore done the better as there would be less changes.